Country Music
by writerchic16
Summary: One shot. Rico finally realizes that Miley is Hannah Montana.


**Country Music**

Summary: One shot. Rico finally realizes that Miley is Hannah Montana.

A/N: The Rico and Robbie Ray plot in "For(Give) a Little Bit" really bothered me, so I wrote this. No spoilers, really, since it takes place before the episode.

* * *

Country music. Seriously?

Rico was trying his best not to laugh in her face. The attractive girl had come up to his stand to order some nachos, and the two started talking while she ate them at the counter. Of course he flirted with her, and asked about her tastes in music. That was when she told him about her country obsession.

It bewildered him that someone so young could like music for old people. This was one weird chick.

But she was cute, and seemed to like him. He'd seen her at the beach a few times, so maybe they had a shot. The thought made him panic and blurt that he was a world champion line dancer. She'd been impressed but skeptical, and joked that he would have to show her some moves some time.

Then she'd finished her nachos and left, with the promise that he'd see her around. And Rico began to panic again.

What was he thinking? He had no clue what line dancing even was, other than that it involved people dancing in a line. All his mind could conjure up was his family doing the Cha Cha Slide at a party years ago.

Well, hopefully she wouldn't bring it up again. Or maybe he could convince her of his passion for country music with something else, so he wouldn't actually have to learn any new dance moves. When he'd feigned interest in her music tastes, she listed some of her favorite artists. His father had many financial resources and celebrity connections, so getting a signed album shouldn't be too hard.

Since the sky was overcast that day, the beach was practically empty, and Rico had some time to pull out his laptop and do some research. The first two names she listed were Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire, but even _he_ heard of them, so he figured that getting signed albums from them would be expensive. While his father could afford it, he didn't want to spend too much money on a girl who he hadn't even dated yet.

Third on her list was Robbie Ray. From what she'd described, the singer was a has-been, one-hit-wonder from the nineties, but she'd been a huge fan of his then and still listened to all his old albums.

Rico suspected that a Robbie Ray album would be much cheaper. Actually, come to think of it, he remembered one such album among his father's old collectors albums in a storage room. He'd have to dig it up when the shack closed for the night.

Then he realized that if he was going to pose as a big country music buff, he'd better learn about it so he could carry on a conversation. Rico opened up a couple other browser windows and typed "Robbie Ray country singer" into a few search engines. After a quick look at some fan pages, he found that Robbie Ray was known more these days for being Hannah Montana's father. _That_ was interesting. Rico knew of Hannah Montana's country roots, but he'd had no idea that her father was a musician too.

Curious of what the music actually sounded like, he looked up the singer on Youtube. The first video that popped up was of Robbie Ray presenting an International Music Award to Hannah at the ceremony last year. Rico clicked on it.

Wait. That wasn't Robbie Ray. That was Mr. Stewart in a fake mustache.

Rico's eyes widened. All of the sites he looked at mostly had pictures of Robbie Ray from fifteen years ago, so hadn't yet made the connection. But there was no mistaking it. Even with the hat and mustache, he knew that was Mr. Stewart.

So that was what happened to the famous singer. Robbie Ray ended up in Malibu and dropped his career to raise his kids. Rico was shocked to think that he'd known a country star for the past few years but never realized it.

But hold on. Robbie Ray was supposed to be Hannah Montana's father. Was the whole thing a publicity stunt to get the has-been back in the spotlight? Because the only children Mr. Stewart had were Jackson and…

No. Way. It couldn't be. The idea was insane.

His breathing heavy from excitement and anticipation, Rico minimized all of the browser windows and opened up two new ones. Then he altered the screens so that they were side by side.

On the left, he pulled up an easily found close-up picture of Hannah Montana. Then on the other, he searched for pictures of Miley – maybe he'd be able to get one from her Facebook or MySpace account. Much to his surprise, he found tons of Miley pictures on tabloid magazine sites, from when she went out with Jake Ryan. He took a close up and made it fill the browser window.

Rico actually gasped. The two girls were identical, save for their hair color. Just to be sure, he quickly a photo alteration program to color Miley's hair blonde.

And then he had two pictures of Hannah Montana.

Whoa.

Rico just stared at the screen, dumbfounded. His gaze then drifted to where Miley and her friends usually sat.

In a weird way…it made sense. Miley and Lilly were constantly talking about the latest Hannah gossip and looking at her in magazines. He never cared to eavesdrop, but he heard Hannah's name mentioned enough to knew that these girls talked about the pop star way more than the average fans should.

Then his mind flashed back. First to when Miley led the whole class in that stupid "Bone Dance" routine. He'd actually accused her of dancing and sounding like Hannah.

Now that he thought about it, their laughs at his suggestion sounded forced.

More recently, he'd intruded on Jackson's date night. When Jackson went after his date, Rico had picked up Mr. Stewart's cell phone…and the person on the other line asked for Hannah Montana's father.

That was it then. Miley Stewart was Hannah Montana.

It bugged him that he never knew. He thought of all the times he could have used this information to get what he wanted. Any time Jackson complained, all Rico would've had to do was threaten to blow the Stewart family secret. But Jackson quit when he went to college, so the information was useless.

Or was it? Rico looked back at altered images on the computer screen. He could easily make his case to a reporter. Even if mainstream media didn't believe it, a tabloid would love the idea and pay him well for any sort of "evidence" he had, like the personal incidences he just remembered.

But then something odd happened. There was this _feeling_ in his heart, something he didn't recognize.

Oh, shoot. It was compassion. He _hated_ that feeling.

Suddenly he was thinking that Miley and her family must keep the secret for a reason, and it wasn't his to expose. But there was all that _money_ he could get…

Rico didn't take his eyes off the computer screen while he fought with his conscience, until then thought to be non-existent. Much to his horror, he was considering other people's feelings. Whether he liked it or not, the Stewarts were a part of his life, and he knew exposing this secret would end that.

So what was he supposed to do with this?

Well, he could keep this all to himself. The idea intrigued him. Not only would he be able to feel more important than everyone else in general for knowing this huge secret, but he would even be able to feel superior to the Stewarts (as well as Lilly and Oliver, who come to think of it probably knew too). They knew Miley's secret, but they would have no idea that _he_ knew Miley's secret.

Actually, that was even better than selling the story to tabloids. Money, he had. Superiority…well, he didn't have that unless his dad handed it to him. This he earned all on his own.

Satisfied with his decision, Rico almost deleted the open photo file. Then he changed his mind and saved it. The file would be a nice tangible reminder of his newfound status.

Maybe he'd have Mr. Stewart sign the album he had, or even ask for country line dancing lessons. After all, it was possible that Rico could know who Mr. Stewart was without knowing that Miley was Hannah. The connection wasn't _too_ well known or talked about, since the average Hannah listener wouldn't even know who Robbie Ray was.

A pleased smirk on his face, he went back to his almost-forgotten mission of acquainting himself with country music. The video of Robbie Ray at the International Music Awards still up, he found that the end of the video featured the duet with Hannah later performed at the ceremony. They were singing one of the older singer's old songs, apparently a major hit in the mid-nineties.

Rico hummed along to the catchy beat as he went back to his research. It really wasn't so bad, this country music.


End file.
